The Land of Lactose and Mead

I’ll have more to say about it later, but one of the things that struck me while reading “The 10,000 Year Explosion” by Cochran and Harpending is their theory of Indo-European expansion (p181):

We suggest that the advantage driving those Indo-European expansions was biological—a high frequency of the European lactose-tolerance mutation (the 1390-T allele).

Certainly plausible since, as they point out, not only does it expand the carrying capacity of grasslands by a factor of 5, it confers greater mobility than other forms of agriculture.

But they also mention the widely accepted fact that the Indo-Europeans were mead drinkers—although they don’t mention the fact that mead was also so highly prized that it was routinely used in rituals—quite possibly because the highest concentrations of sugars—hence fermented spirits—available to them was honey rather than grapes.

Which is all my way of introducing the idea that ”The Land of Milk and Honey” would have had more significance to the Indo-Europeans than to a lactose intolerant group that didn’t have mead as its primary ritual drink.

This is something the Christian Identity folks should have picked up on but I don’t recall any references to that theory by them.

Posted by James Bowery on Sunday, April 5, 2009 at 03:29 PM in
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THE WHITE POWER CYCLE

THE WHITE POWER CYCLE

by Constantin von Hoffmeister

“We must secure the existence of our people and a future for White children.”
-- David Lane

ANCESTRAL HERITAGE

in tibet the candles burn
swastika on palm and flag
fair expedition restless roaming
roots beneath the stupas shine
legions in berlin all crisp
buddhists for the dome they fell
high and low the strangers greet
the roof all peace and solitude
the mountain and the city burn
god soldiers march their path alight
and solemn monks in arms join free
for europa white and spirit they fight
hedin’s call to the youth of the world
resounding in rubble valor and life
the palace in lhasa displays the sign
a race seduced by filthy soot
afresh the cultural wave that flows
amidst the stain remains a pure grain
march the cosmos tarnished troops!
their banner burned but still alive
the soul as always radiant!

THE LAST STRONGHOLD

disintegrating in rubble
fair race migrates east
civil and demolished naked
above the moaning
comrades sleeping
fair race seeking morals
anguish left and women hidden
in time and space the money slides
and futile river nearly dry
the blood of old a crucial tie
when creators fish the men alive
sanguine beasts turn prey to dust
(see you fear in the wasted lands?)
red the tiles covered in screams
as summer breeze drowns in blood
ether creeping out a pure-blood sky
(then it will be time to forgive)
and argue restless on a silver tray
the city sold and bodies bought
bags aflame with ice-cold greed
claws dug deep in pure-blood souls
(only hear sailor songs of glory and pain)

Continued...

Posted by Constantin von Hoffmeister on Sunday, April 5, 2009 at 02:45 PM in
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Rumble in the Shtetl: Von Mises vs. Marx

By exPF

This is the pilot episode of a new series of posts where rival Jewish theoreticians go head to head in a blood-and-guts extravaganza like nothing else you’ve ever seen! Its incredible, its shocking - at the end of the fight, only one theoretician will be left standing!!! Are you ready?
Predicates will fly, conditional sentences will crunch, assertions will go “snap” under the gruesome, bone-crushing force of Ashkenazi brilliance! Be prepared to be mildly startled!

In the far corner, weighing in at 190 lbs not including the facial hair, German jewry’s gift to Eastern Europe’s smart fraction: KAAARRLL MAAARX!

In the near corner, the reigning champion, 167 lbs of pure Jewish Freedom: LUDWIG VON MISES!!!

LET’S GET READY TO RUMBLE!!! (cue music)

And they’re off! - Mises starts off with a critique from his essay, Marxism Unmasked (pfd). He describes Marxist theory in outline.

Marx developed what he thought was a new system.According to his materialist interpretation of history, the “material productive forces” (this is an exact translation of the German) are the bases of everything. Each stage of the material productive forces corresponds to a definite stage of production relations. The material productive forces determine the production relations, that is, the type of ownership and property which exists in the world. And the production relations determine the superstructure. In the terminology of Marx, capitalism or feudalism are production relations. Each of these was necessarily produced by a particular stage of the material productive forces. In 1859, Karl Marx said a new stage of material productive forces would produce socialism.

But what are these material productive forces? Just as Marx never said what a “class” was, so he never said exactly what the “material productive forces” are. After looking through his writings we find that the material productive forces are the tools and machines. In one of his books [Misère de la philosophie—The Poverty of Philosophy], written in French in 1847, Marx said “the hand mill produces feudalism––the steam mill produces capitalism.”3 He didn’t say it in this book, but in other writings he wrote that other machines will come which will produce socialism.

Its categorically impossible for one historical figure to reply to refutations of his theory which come into being a century after his death! Accordingly, Marx is just standing there, as Mises continues to pummel him with critique. This could get gruesome, folks …

Continued...

Posted by Guest Blogger on Saturday, April 4, 2009 at 11:44 AM in Marxism & Culture War
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Painting a Picture

A Demographic Overview Of Whites Within The United States

By The Narrator

The following is a basic look at the demographics of White percentages by state(s) within regions. I’ve used general geographic definitions to cluster states that are, well, naturally clustered together. So, for example, my usage of the term “south-west” may not be what an American would necessarily concur with. But my compartmentalizing of the states is more functional and done with Europeans, Australians, etc in mind .... I hope it’s all clear.

The point here is not to advocate some sort of regional movement by saying this region is Whiter than that region. It is simply to provide basic information. Besides migration patterns can change quickly and what appears to be a doomed state or region today may be Whiter in years to come. And Whiter regions or states today may be dramatically less so in ten years time.

So this is a “Just the Facts” type of exercise.

The percentages here are not fixed and tend to fluctuate a point or two even within the Census material. We’ll know more after next year when the 2010 census begins. And I expect the news for us to be worse than some imagine. I hope I’m wrong.

A few things to keep in mind looking at these percentages is that they are based on estimates from 2007 by the Census Bureau, not concrete numbers. Also, the definition of white which the Census uses includes peoples from North Africa and the Middle-East. So it erroneously includes Jews, Arabs, Iranians, Turks etc, as “white”. And there are somewhere around 14 million of those peoples in America. Lastly, the numbers of illegals have been, by all accounts, rather obviously (and likely intentionally) underestimated.

So looking at these percentages, you could arguably subtract anywhere from 1 to 10 additional points from the percentage of Whites in some, or all, states.

With that said, here goes. The percentage of Whites will appear next to each state. At the bottom of each list will be a total average for that region, except with the single states and the District of Columbia which would be redundant.

Continued...

Posted by Guest Blogger on Friday, April 3, 2009 at 09:57 PM in Demographics
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ENR

Posted by Søren Renner on Friday, April 3, 2009 at 04:32 PM in Activism
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Majority Rights Mailbag

Dear MR:
The April 1 posts were a total buzzkill. How about some new content? It can be something made-up and pointless.
Cthulu Worshipper

Dear CW:
Does this count? Good luck with the Arkham Asylum doctors and staff.
MR

Posted by Søren Renner on Friday, April 3, 2009 at 04:27 PM in No particular place to go
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Health Recommendations

by exPF

Are you in good health? Well, what defines good health? Is it enough not to have cancer or debilitating diseases, or should one expect a spark of vivacity, vigor and animal spirits?

Here’s a website that lists some non-traditional (mostly herbal) remedies for ailments which many people have but are rarely diagnosed.

That website will repay some research into the various topics of discussion. Some of the website is the domain of “Quackery” so be warned - most of it however is quite good.

I recommend that everyone do the liver flush.  It is a cleansing procedure that takes 2 days, and requires only oil, juice and Epsom salt. After I did it, I shat out massive amounts of ‘sand’ and rocks - apparently the contents of my liver - and became, overnight, a far better soccer player. Apparently, I’m a lot faster when I’m not carrying the contents of a sandbox inside my liver.

I also recommend the bowel cleanse - it will eliminate the poo in you that is stuck in your system, the so-called mucoid plaque.  Basically its a rubbery black rope-like shit-tube. Everyone is carrying this around - unless you’ve eaten a stirling diet your entire life.

Next up for me is the parasite cleanse - recommended for anyone, because everyone has some type of parasites.  This last cleanse requires more reading as there are many possible avenues for treatment. Parasites are a big drain on a man - for example, Candida is an internal yeast infection that looks like cotton balls and eats up all your magensium. You feel it when magnesium gets low because you can’t think so clearly.

Beyond this is the kidney cleanse, halogen cleanse, and chelating stuff. The latter removes heavy metals stored in your fat supply.  Then you can proceed to lose weight, so you burn off fat which is likely used in your body for toxin storage.

Anyway, at least do the simple stuff, because our philosophy needs happy, thriving, bright-faced exponents who will be more vivacious than the other side in all things.  Also if you find yourself lacking the happy childhood energy, you feel yourself getting older, rings under the eyes, beer belly - it need not be that way.  Go on a cleansing diet and restore some of your youthful vivacity.  We all know by observation how the state of the material body effects “the spirit” - with that in mind I wish all participants here the best gift of all - good health!

Posted by Guest Blogger on Wednesday, April 1, 2009 at 08:16 PM in Health
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Ainu NS Mechanime Agitprop

Before viewing, you should know a few things. Rabbits are the totemic animals of the Ainu. I think the camel-dog things are supposed to be Japanese. Watch for the swastikas—they are quite subtle.

Posted by Søren Renner on Wednesday, April 1, 2009 at 12:40 AM in No particular place to go
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Snappy Refutations, Exercise 3

By Ex-PF

Refute (or counter) the following:

(said in a discussion with another white in a coffee shop)

So basically all you care about is that your children, and your great-grandchildren and so on and so on, will have blue eyes and fair skin? Thats all that matters to you? Because I really don’t care.

Statements will be evaluated for conciseness and overall “snappiness”.

A brief addendum: It was suggested on the last Snappy thread that these posts be continued in the likely event of ex-PF being called away.  That seems like a worthwhile aim.  But since we all encounter the other side’s arguments, many of us on a daily basis, I’d like to invite offerings from any readers who come across a particularly well-engineered one.  Just mail me through the contact button under the banner.
Thanks very much, GW

Posted by Guest Blogger on Tuesday, March 31, 2009 at 11:34 PM in Activism
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What is always with us?

By exPF

What lasts forever? Well, the mineral composition of the planets has a pretty impressive longevity.  The constellations of stars, with their long-forecasted death dates, make an impressive claim on time. The tendency of leftist philosophers to acknowledge the changing nature of the universe with a shrugging admission that everything is immutable, and the search for transcendent order thus useless, is a relatively fixed and unchanging pattern, albeit newly emergent.

The knee-jerk leftist shrug of “I see no transcendent order, so there can be no compelling imperative inherent in circumstances” pressages the inevitable return to resigned live-for-the-moment hedonism: you can continue chasing your tails gentlemen. Its all just as meaningless as we set out to prove it to be.

Looking to the cosmos is really a step too far considering that our evolutionary environment only knew the heavens as a playground for our ancestors’ anthropomorphizing imaginations (if one assumes, as I do, that a transcendent order has to be rooted in our existence and being, rather than in that of a creator). We may want to touch “forever” and play in the grandest theater accessible to us, but objectivity demands we stick to the facts of human life and ask, rather than what lasts forever (since we ourselves do not last forever): “what is always with us?”

Continued...

Posted by Guest Blogger on Monday, March 30, 2009 at 09:40 PM in Political Philosophy
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Treachery and the Barcelona Process

By David Hamilton

The media are part of the ideological caste and, unless they are brave or honourable, keep “sensitive” issues from the public or present them in a way favourable to the elites. The highest sensitivity is reserved for race, then gender and sexual orientation.  The EU promotes this ideology. The news reporting is managed, and EU and UN schemes to discriminate against whites are kept from the public. People cannot revolt against something if they do not know it is happening. So what is really happening?

Throughout Europe there is a developing war on the streets for possession of the continent.  This is mainly aimed at us European people but anti-Semitism is coming back too.

British Muslims are not only burrowing into our institutions and undermining them from within, they are beginning a war in the UK AND they are fighting against our troops in Afghanistan.  EU rulers know this but still encourage immigration to build up their numbers.

How realistic is the New World Order: or is Globalisation beneficial?  In an outstanding article of 30 Jan 2009, Patrick J.Buchanan talked of the Globalist fantasy and what is really happening:-

Continued...

Posted by Guest Blogger on Monday, March 30, 2009 at 09:26 PM in European Union
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Intellectualism and opportunity cost, Part 1

A commentator at American Renaissance had the following to relate about his time studying at MIT, regarding the differences between the study habits of Asian students and the study habits of white American students:

“Part of this may be that Asian males are brought up with more exposure to abstract principles with beauty in them, and aren’t told that beauty (at any level) is sissy. The MIT Asians seem to be more likely than the MIT white males to grow up playing piano or violin rather than football.”

I suspect the commentator was Asian, because his comment is full of negative evaluations of the mentality and study habits of whites vis-à-vis Asians. Typically one allows oneself negative generalizations about those outside one’s perceived in-group.

Rather than be bothered by the racial slander inherent in the comment, I think there is some criticism of contemporary western culture here that really ought to be stomached. Namely, we have become increasingly anti-intellectual in our cultural attitudes.

If I could summarize in a line the attitude of post-1960s western culture, it would be this: we have achieved this blessed state of material bounty, lets just enjoy it.

Enjoy it.

Nothing more profound than that: an injunction to partake of the bounty of the white man’s accumulated wealth. Surrounded by loved ones: Mother State and Father Television, Uncle Movie Theater and Auntie Shopping Mall. 

Continued...

Posted by Guest Blogger on Saturday, March 28, 2009 at 11:49 PM in Oh Tempora, Oh Mores
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The Red Riding Trilogy: the utility of redemption, Part 1

For several days now I’ve been pondering how to write about Channel 4’s Red Riding, the three full-length films adapted by Tony Grisoni from David Peace’s four-part cult trilogy of that name, of which the final part was aired on Thursday 19th March.  The obvious difficulty is that few MR readers will have watched it, or will understand references to the plot or the characters.

That isn’t entirely insurmountable.  The Channel 4 Catch-up pages are still live here.  But I can’t seriously expect readers to invest six hours of their life watching a British TV drama, even one of this quality.

So … how to cover the essentials and get to the political point that I want to make about this ostensibly non-political drama?  I don’t want to revisit the entire narrative, which would probably take you another six hours to negotiate!

Well, let’s see.  Red Riding has a complex plot intelligently constructed from fictional and non-fictional elements.  The storyline follows the lives, the struggles, the deaths, often violent, of a cross-section of Yorkshire humanity as they are impacted by three interwoven criminal enterprises: the corrupt actions of a clique of senior police detectives, the disappearance of four young girls over a period of 14 years, and the real-life murders by Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper.  The usual suspects are there - the driven investigative reporter, the corrupt and murderous policemen, the amoral property developer, the rent boy, the trusted but paedophile priest.  The period (1974 to 1983) is beautifully observed.  The seventies feel of the first film, particularly, will be recognisable to anyone who, in adulthood and preferably young adulthood, experienced that PeeCee-free, incomparably tatty, oddly enervating decade.

For presenting the entire ouevre without the mandatory black computer genius or inexplicably popular female Asian policewoman ... without, in fact, presenting any non-white as other than entirely peripheral, fleetingly visible extras … for allowing the characters, at least the coarser ones, to refer to non-whites as “wogs”, the writer and the directors of each film have my admiration and gratitude.  That’s film verité.  That’s the life we had in the seventies.  With Red Riding, correctness has triumphed over political correctness.

Continued...

Posted by Guessedworker on Saturday, March 28, 2009 at 04:11 PM in
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Snappy Refutations Project, Exercise 2

By Ex-PF

Refute (or counter) the following, while maintaining conversational tone and diction and a minimum of verbiage (preferably several sentences length).

(said by an Indian student in a western University setting):

The British conquered us and ruled over us. They came to our lands. What goes around comes around.

Refutations are evaluated for conciseness and “snappiness” i.e. ease of wielding them.

Posted by Guest Blogger on Friday, March 27, 2009 at 04:05 PM in Activism
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The Snappy Refutations Project, Exercise 1

By Ex-PF

Refute the following, while maintaining conversational tone and diction and a minimum of verbiage (preferably several sentences length).

(related in a dinner table discussion of miscegenation):

The Anglo-Saxon people are actually a mongrel nation anyway. All those Jutes, Angles, Normans and Celts, we’re all such mixed up mongrels.

Refutations will be evaluated for conciseness and overall “snappiness”, i.e. the ease of wielding them in everyday convos with average people.

Maybe, after all entries are submitted, we’ll take a vote as to whose was best.

Posted by Guest Blogger on Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 01:37 PM in Activism
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Debt and some very modest proposals

By John Rackell

I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled, and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee, or a ragout.

Jonathan Swift: A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Ireland from being a Burden to their Parents or Country, 1729.

Some proposals for solving particular problems of the day may have all the merits of logic on their side, assuming one acquiesces to facile assumptions and glib premises, but their conclusions are so outrageous that the proposal must be treated as satire.  Or God help us.

In our current circumstance of economic crisis – housing bubble burst, busted banks, bankrupt states and municipalities, exploding government liabilities, depression waiting in the wings (or hyperinflation or hyperinflationary-depression) – and those are only the manageable problems, to say nothing of the trashing of the West’s 500 year hegemony and the transfer of wealth and power to Asia, and China in particular – various proposals are being mooted that formerly would have been whispered only by conspiracy theorists or dismissed by sober minded people, or treated as satire.

To wit, the ones I’m familiar with, that the (US) government will force all holders of 401k and IRA plans (private, ‘self-directed’ pension plans for non-US readers) to accept zero-coupon government bonds in exchange for the assets in their accounts; these plans representing perhaps the single largest untapped source of wealth for the US government.

The other modest proposal, and the subject here, is the idea that the US should solve the problems of housing (primarily the vast excess supply of housing relative to current demand – the supply ‘overhang’ ) by giving any foreign person a US green card – i.e. an immigration visa – in exchange for their purchase of a housing unit.

One house, one immigrant – and his extended family.  Very neat. 

Continued...

Posted by Guest Blogger on Thursday, March 26, 2009 at 12:16 AM in Economics & Finance
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Fist of reason goes viral.

DISCLAIMER: I don’t know what Mr. Hannan’s politics are, other than that he isn’t BNP since they aren’t in the EP yet.

virality link

Posted by Søren Renner on Wednesday, March 25, 2009 at 10:12 PM in
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Emanuel: Ban No Fly List From Owning Handguns

Rahm Emanuel, who is now Obama’s Chief of Staff:

...and we’ve gotta make this the Number One Issue as a test vote and then take it into the election—that is:  If you are on the No Fly List because you are known as MAYBE A POSSIBLE TERRORIST, YOU CANNOT BUY A HANDGUN IN AMERICA.

So the de facto US government’s #2 man has stated it is the “number one priority” that your right to keep and bear arms shall be infringed—without you even being convicted of a crime—in direct contravention to the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution.

Posted by James Bowery on Tuesday, March 24, 2009 at 05:00 PM in
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Poetry Attack: blue on blue

blue on blue and into blue receding
the bell of heaven ekes such sweet longeurs
of blue from blue itself that it allures
blue folded, mutilated, bleeding
blue, stuck on the world’s spike
blue mixed with green and sloshing as it can
or mixed but yet unrippled, for the days
when she must build her nest, and lays
her eggs upon the limitless cyan
the halcyon, that is, and not the shrike
blue is the vault and blue is the foundation
between them fly all flocks of other words
the jaeger, which harasses other birds
blue afterwards, and blue before creation
large swan and little cygnet, if you like
blue cynosure, from vertical to flat
it is what all must always keep their eyes on
a formless blue from zenith to horizon
and if the world be somehow wrapped in cat
that cat must be a blue-furred ouroboros
hooped like a snake, blue self-devouring torus.

Continued...

Posted by Søren Renner on Monday, March 23, 2009 at 03:30 PM in
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Down Google’s Memory Hole: Usenet

When Deja News (plausibly a government spook shop run by Bobby Inman‘s boys spun off of the MCC) went belly up, the only web-searchable archive of Usenet newsgroups disappeared.  That archive was revived when Google became the dominant search engine.  So now, we can go back and see who was saying what about what regarding racial politics and when they were saying it, right?

Wrong:

This isn’t even a matter of free speech anymore.  Its a matter of erasing evidence.  Pretty much everyone knows there were agents provocateur running around Usenet conducting psyops, so it is pretty obviously “unproductive” to leave that information open for later analysis.

PS:  This gets to be almost comical:  According to Google’s version of Usenet history, I wrote only 2 Usenet posts between 1990 and 1997, one of which cannot be retrieved because it was posted to alt.politics.nationalism.white.  We need to acquire the Russian sense of humor quickly.

Posted by James Bowery on Monday, March 23, 2009 at 06:16 AM in
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OUR MOTHERLAND: IMPERIUM EUROPA

Here is my introduction to Norman Lowell’s forthcoming book IMPERIUM EUROPA: A BOOK THAT CHANGED THE WORLD.

OUR MOTHERLAND: IMPERIUM EUROPA

by Constantin von Hoffmeister

“The nations are dead, for Europe is born.”
-- Francis Parker Yockey

Norman Lowell has a vision. A vision of what Europe will become. Not what Europe should become but what Europe WILL become. According to Lowell, the year 2012 will be the year 0. Time will start afresh for our race. A new beginning, a new dawn - a new aeon approaches. While ancient traditions will be upheld and cherished, modern technology will be implemented to both boldly innovate new paths and persistently perpetuate former greatness. Lowell wants Aryan heroes of yore, like ancient Spartan warrior Leonidas, to be cloned, thus ensuring that the new genetically enhanced generation of natural leaders will be supported by proven leaders from our glorious past. A new species of Aryan supermen will once again rule the planet and - finally! - the cosmos beyond.

Lowell is right when he stresses the importance of the unity of ALL Europeans. Only as a unified bloc will the White race be able to overcome the anti-Occidental forces which have as their ultimate goal the total destruction of Magna Europa (Europe and its daughters AmeriKa, Canada, Chile, Argentina and Australasia) and the complete annihilation of all Europids on the planet. Alas, a White race bloc (composed of Anglo-Saxons, Teutons, Slavs and Latins) that asserts itself as such will be able to once and for all overcome internal divisions only if it ruthlessly crushes all signs of resurging petty nationalisms. There is no place for separatist tendencies in the Imperium Europa. A fragmented Europe, as the past has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, is a weak Europe. The need for a Europe that is truly ONE is a pressing need indeed: a Europe “from sea to shining to sea,” from Dublin to Vladivostok is the ONLY Europe that has any chance of survival in the cataclysmic events that lie ahead. Like Friedrich Nietzsche, one has to learn to become “a good European” instead of a good German, a good Russian, a good Englishman, etc.

Continued...

Posted by Constantin von Hoffmeister on Sunday, March 22, 2009 at 10:53 AM in
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Alain de Benoist’s preface to the Croatian edition of Sunic’s “Against Democracy and Equality”

Tomislav Sunic’s first book, Against Democracy and Equality: The European New Right, has just been released in a Croatian language edition.  It carries a lengthy preface by Alain de Benoist, which sets out the background and principle positions of the ENR.  I reproduce it in English here, as translated by Tom.
GW

The New Right: 40 Years After ...
by Alain de Benoist

In 1990, as a current of thought under the name “European New Right” (ENR) had began to celebrate its twenty-first birthday, a Croatian friend of mine, Tomislav Sunic, published in English the first edition of his book on the New Right. This was originally the text of his doctoral dissertation, defended two years earlier at the University of California in Santa Barbara, (1). Having acquired a very good knowledge of French during his studies at the University of Zagreb, Sunic was keen to probe into the ENR very early on. Moreover, he also had the opportunity to read ENR works in the original French language. Unlike many other commentators who spoke of the ENR on the basis of hearsay and formed judgments from second hand sources, he demonstrated the ability to go right to the core of the issue. He demonstrated a sympathy for the ENR which plainly distinguished him from those commentators.

It was also plain that his book’s interest derives from something more than sympathy. Its importance is due to its pioneer character. Certainly, in the late 1980s several books (but also a number of scholarly works) had already been published on the ENR. But they were almost all published in French. Tomislav Sunic’s book was one of the first to appear abroad (a privilege he shared with some Italian authors). Presenting the history and main ideas of the ENR to a public who had never heard of it before was not an easy task. Thanks to his informed mind, his sense of synthesis, but also his knowledge of the readers he addressed, there is no doubt that Sunic succeeded immediately in his endeavor.

In hindsight, what I find most remarkable is that Tomislav Sunic’s book was written in English, especially given that the author resided at that time in a country - the United States - that he knew from the inside-out and which he viewed in a very critical manner (as evidenced by his latest book, Homo Americanus).

Continued...

Posted by Guessedworker on Sunday, March 22, 2009 at 12:03 AM in New Right
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Will the Real Joseph Cassano Please Stand Up?

Rolling Stone reports that:

That guy — the Patient Zero of the global economic meltdown — was one Joseph Cassano, the head of a tiny, 400-person unit within the company called AIG Financial Products, or AIGFP. Cassano, a pudgy, balding Brooklyn College grad with beady eyes and way too much forehead, cut his teeth in the Eighties working for Mike Milken, the granddaddy of modern Wall Street debt alchemists. Milken, who pioneered the creative use of junk bonds, relied on messianic genius and a whole array of insider schemes to evade detection while wreaking financial disaster. Cassano, by contrast, was just a greedy little turd with a knack for selective accounting who ran his scam right out in the open, thanks to Washington’s deregulation of the Wall Street casino. “It’s all about the regulatory environment,” says a government source involved with the AIG bailout. “These guys look for holes in the system, for ways they can do trades without government interference. Whatever is unregulated, all the action is going to pile into that.”

Posted by James Bowery on Saturday, March 21, 2009 at 04:49 PM in
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Strong Creationism

The ongoing Princeton lecture series, The Strong Free Will Theorem by John H. Conway and Simon Kochen bears on “creationism”.

It presents science with a choice:

Either believe free will is, in a strong sense, universal or deny your own free will.

How will scientists choose?

PS: I hate to break it to sophomoric anti-creationists like Dawkins, but the fact that so-called “creationists” have their cranks that insist on the literal interpretation of Genesis doesn’t mean you can just dismiss the field.  Evolutionary theory has a lot more room for religion than the determinists would have us believe.

Posted by James Bowery on Saturday, March 21, 2009 at 04:11 PM in
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Towards a God that can save us

A review of ‘The Language of God’ by Francis S. Collins

‘I am convinced that a change can only be prepared from the same place in the world where the modern technological world originated. It cannot come about by the adoption of Zen Buddhism or other Eastern experiences of the world. The help of the European tradition and a new appropriation of that tradition are needed for a change in thinking. Thinking will only be transformed by a thinking that has the same origin and destiny.’

‘I know that everything essential and great has only emerged when human beings had a home and were rooted in a tradition.’

--Martin Heidegger, Der Spiegel interview 1966

Francis Collins was head of the Human Genome Project (HGP), which published an initial version of the genome in 2001 (simultaneously with Celera Genomics).  Originally led by reknowned atheist, Nobel Prize winner, and racial heretic James Watson, the HGP was taken over by Collins in 1993.  Prior to this, Collins had a successful career in disease gene discovery.  His scientific credentials make him for many a credible and interesting Christian apologist.

The foundation for Collins’ belief is the ‘Moral Law’ as outlined by C.S. Lewis in ‘Mere Christianity’, which is taken to be the source of our innate ability to judge right from wrong.  Collins realizes that his own discipline has something to say about this, so he tries to counter the sociobiologists’ arguments for altruism right away.  But he does a terrible job of it, the icing on the cake being his invoking the examples of Oskar Schindler and Mother Teresa as his sole proof against group selection (most of the examples Collins provides of the Moral Law made flesh are drawn from the usual suspects of the PC parade: Schindler, MLK, Wilberforce, etc.).  Such scientific failings expose Collins to the charge of hypocrisy, as one of his main criticisms of creationists is that they are promoting a ‘God of the Gaps’ whose existence is made vulnerable by advances in science.  In a more blatant example, after cricizing the hubris of those who referred to parts of the genome as ‘junk DNA’, he himself describes parts of it as ‘flotsam and jetsam’ and uses its purported ‘junk’ status to refute creationism.  Collins assumes he knows what parts of the genome are non-functional.  One wonders whether he is even aware of the recent revolution in RNA biology and that the majority of the genome is transcribed.

Continued...

Posted by Dasein on Friday, March 20, 2009 at 09:46 PM in Books,  Christianity
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